I had gathered with around 30-40 others who had assembled for a variety of reasons, the common theme being support for refugees and immigrants currently residing in our town.
I came away with a bad taste in my mouth, feeling that more had been lost than achieved.
I was part of what was a counter demo to the far right who had planned a hate fest on the bridge at 2.30. I did not go to counter demonstrate. I don't think such mobilisations serve any discernible purpose in pushing back the far right. If anything they arguably create a flashpoint which rather than deter racists can actually energise them. This is in part because of the growing appeal of the far right to gangland types, who are presumably more attracted to the potential for violence that is dangled like a carrot in front of a donkey than they are to its hateful and harmful ideology.
The sole reason I turned up was because young members of the loose anti-far right alliance I attend meetings with each week had said they were going to be present, despite my musings against counter-demos. One of them has already been threatened with violence. Their parents, fearful that their children might be exposed to harm, said they would be there for them. In the end neither the children nor parents were on the bridge, making me think my own time had been wasted. It was primarily to stand in solidarity with the youth, and not to counter the far right, that I put in an appearance. Let the forty-odd fascists stand on the bridge and hopefully - children in prams excepted - either freeze or jump off it.
In a different time, the streets were a vital organising principle for fascists. But not so much any more. Social media now fulfils that role. The need to keep them off the streets is no longer as strategically crucial for opponents of Nationalists Ireland or Natsis for short. Apart from placing bodies as a protective shield around accommodation centres where refugees and immigrants reside and outside which the far right has assembled, allowing them to draw us onto their terrain of choice is both counter intuitive and counter productive.
Not that I feel for a moment that the far right does not need countered. There is no issue around the need to oppose the malignancy. It is a given. The overriding question is the form such opposition is to assume. Taking to the streets is vital but as a demonstration rather than a counter demonstration. For that reason I will be taking part in the big march planned for Dublin on Saturday. I fail to see how behaving like Pavlov's dog, classically conditioned to jump every time the racists make a prompt, serves any purpose other than the oomph that street conflict is likely to give to the far right agenda. It is not the streets they need but clashes on the streets.
While others including my wife disagree, in my view today's counter protest unfortunately handed a victory of sorts to the far right. The seizing of a banner from the racists as they strutted off at the end of their demo might have been courageous but it was reckless courage. Whether a planned foray across the road or a rush of blood to the head, I don't know. Just as I don't know if the overriding intention was to steal the banner or steal the limelight. In any event the far right rushed to retrieve their captured colours. A melee ensured causing a number of us to intervene so as to ensure our guy was not beaten by the mob. Oddly, and against my expectations, from what I could see the far right elements who rushed to retake their banner, aggressively jostled, pushed and pulled but refrained from physically attacking any of us. A lone Garda motorcyclist alighted from his vehicle and stepped into the fray. He did a good job. By the time a flashing light back up arrived it was not needed. The Garda, like a fight referee, had forced the protagonists apart, with the banner making the return journey back to the hate side of the bridge.
I came away with a bad taste in my mouth, feeling that more had been lost than achieved.
I was part of what was a counter demo to the far right who had planned a hate fest on the bridge at 2.30. I did not go to counter demonstrate. I don't think such mobilisations serve any discernible purpose in pushing back the far right. If anything they arguably create a flashpoint which rather than deter racists can actually energise them. This is in part because of the growing appeal of the far right to gangland types, who are presumably more attracted to the potential for violence that is dangled like a carrot in front of a donkey than they are to its hateful and harmful ideology.
The sole reason I turned up was because young members of the loose anti-far right alliance I attend meetings with each week had said they were going to be present, despite my musings against counter-demos. One of them has already been threatened with violence. Their parents, fearful that their children might be exposed to harm, said they would be there for them. In the end neither the children nor parents were on the bridge, making me think my own time had been wasted. It was primarily to stand in solidarity with the youth, and not to counter the far right, that I put in an appearance. Let the forty-odd fascists stand on the bridge and hopefully - children in prams excepted - either freeze or jump off it.
In a different time, the streets were a vital organising principle for fascists. But not so much any more. Social media now fulfils that role. The need to keep them off the streets is no longer as strategically crucial for opponents of Nationalists Ireland or Natsis for short. Apart from placing bodies as a protective shield around accommodation centres where refugees and immigrants reside and outside which the far right has assembled, allowing them to draw us onto their terrain of choice is both counter intuitive and counter productive.
Not that I feel for a moment that the far right does not need countered. There is no issue around the need to oppose the malignancy. It is a given. The overriding question is the form such opposition is to assume. Taking to the streets is vital but as a demonstration rather than a counter demonstration. For that reason I will be taking part in the big march planned for Dublin on Saturday. I fail to see how behaving like Pavlov's dog, classically conditioned to jump every time the racists make a prompt, serves any purpose other than the oomph that street conflict is likely to give to the far right agenda. It is not the streets they need but clashes on the streets.
While others including my wife disagree, in my view today's counter protest unfortunately handed a victory of sorts to the far right. The seizing of a banner from the racists as they strutted off at the end of their demo might have been courageous but it was reckless courage. Whether a planned foray across the road or a rush of blood to the head, I don't know. Just as I don't know if the overriding intention was to steal the banner or steal the limelight. In any event the far right rushed to retrieve their captured colours. A melee ensured causing a number of us to intervene so as to ensure our guy was not beaten by the mob. Oddly, and against my expectations, from what I could see the far right elements who rushed to retake their banner, aggressively jostled, pushed and pulled but refrained from physically attacking any of us. A lone Garda motorcyclist alighted from his vehicle and stepped into the fray. He did a good job. By the time a flashing light back up arrived it was not needed. The Garda, like a fight referee, had forced the protagonists apart, with the banner making the return journey back to the hate side of the bridge.
While I was relaxed about that Garda's intervention, I was later left uneasy when his colleagues chatting to some on our side of the bridge spoke as if hate and tolerance were on an equal footing and law enforcement was caught in between, keeping the peace. Such a stance is made easier to maintain when incidents like seizing the banner so readily enhance the risk of exposing the counter demonstrators to depiction as aggressors. In that sense it felt like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It also exposed our people to the risk of violence. We did not go there to batter the racists but had to step in to ensure that one of our number was not himself battered.
That wasn't the only antics from our side of the bridge. Instead of maintaining a dignified silence, we sought to out-sloganise our opposite number. Maybe it is my age, and things I once did now seem infantile, but at 65 chants that seem little different from the one nil, one nil we are accustomed to hearing being hurled the way of rival soccer fans have no purchase with me. Performing like a dancing bear even less so. It seems so much like bragging rights, the light dimmed by the heat, the political purpose overshadowed by theatrics.
As an aside, particularly disappointing today was a bus driver on the 100 service crossing the bridge a few minutes past 3. The horn started honking and the driver's clenched fist shot up in salute of the racists. Someone said the driver was a woman. An employee who cannot keep their racist politics out of the workplace should themselves be kept out of the workplace.
Against that was a courteous exchange prior to the main event with a young woman pushing her infant to the nearby park. She stopped to ask if people like her who had authentic concerns about the lack of infrastructure to support an influx of refugees were to be characterised as racists or fascists. From her language it seemed certain that she had been picking up the far right tropes. It was explained to her that if she was to stand beside Herman Kelly, then yes. But she genuinely seemed not to know who Kelly was. She stopped to reason with us rather than rant so we concluded with an exchange of pleasantries before she continued to the park and we crossed the road to stand facing the far right.
For me there was a surreal touch to the face off. Having for years stood opposite loyalist mobs, this one seemed no different apart from their waving of tricolours. They came equipped with the bigotry, the supremacism, the fascism, the hatred. Brandishing the Irish national flag made it seem like identity-crisis loyalism on tour.
I detest loud whistles. Like Quasimodo's experience with bells, they hurt my ears. Still, when the fascist speaker tried to address his supporters, the whistle from our side drowned him out, ruining the PR videos the far right later put out. Better for the ears that they are assailed by a whistle than a fascist speech.
We who seek to mobilise against the far right should be under no illusion about what it entails. At some point it might well do what it has traditionally done - kill people trying to stymie its momentum. The luxury of backing off in the hope that it will go away is simply not an option. The menace has to be faced down. There is no deciding to be done in that respect. What does need deciding is how and when. Actions that risk the counter strategy being projected as some sort of Crips & Bloods drama might win a battle or two, but not the war.
That wasn't the only antics from our side of the bridge. Instead of maintaining a dignified silence, we sought to out-sloganise our opposite number. Maybe it is my age, and things I once did now seem infantile, but at 65 chants that seem little different from the one nil, one nil we are accustomed to hearing being hurled the way of rival soccer fans have no purchase with me. Performing like a dancing bear even less so. It seems so much like bragging rights, the light dimmed by the heat, the political purpose overshadowed by theatrics.
As an aside, particularly disappointing today was a bus driver on the 100 service crossing the bridge a few minutes past 3. The horn started honking and the driver's clenched fist shot up in salute of the racists. Someone said the driver was a woman. An employee who cannot keep their racist politics out of the workplace should themselves be kept out of the workplace.
Against that was a courteous exchange prior to the main event with a young woman pushing her infant to the nearby park. She stopped to ask if people like her who had authentic concerns about the lack of infrastructure to support an influx of refugees were to be characterised as racists or fascists. From her language it seemed certain that she had been picking up the far right tropes. It was explained to her that if she was to stand beside Herman Kelly, then yes. But she genuinely seemed not to know who Kelly was. She stopped to reason with us rather than rant so we concluded with an exchange of pleasantries before she continued to the park and we crossed the road to stand facing the far right.
For me there was a surreal touch to the face off. Having for years stood opposite loyalist mobs, this one seemed no different apart from their waving of tricolours. They came equipped with the bigotry, the supremacism, the fascism, the hatred. Brandishing the Irish national flag made it seem like identity-crisis loyalism on tour.
I detest loud whistles. Like Quasimodo's experience with bells, they hurt my ears. Still, when the fascist speaker tried to address his supporters, the whistle from our side drowned him out, ruining the PR videos the far right later put out. Better for the ears that they are assailed by a whistle than a fascist speech.
We who seek to mobilise against the far right should be under no illusion about what it entails. At some point it might well do what it has traditionally done - kill people trying to stymie its momentum. The luxury of backing off in the hope that it will go away is simply not an option. The menace has to be faced down. There is no deciding to be done in that respect. What does need deciding is how and when. Actions that risk the counter strategy being projected as some sort of Crips & Bloods drama might win a battle or two, but not the war.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
Going by your account more was lost than achieved.
ReplyDeleteThese far-right twats are merely energised by counter-demonstrations. Minimise the oxygen they crave. Fanning the embers of this nascent movement with potentially confrontational counter-protests is hugely counterproductive.
Paradoxically your young friends need to be reminded of all citizens right to free assembly, and equally their right to free speech; subject of course to not transgressing into incitement to hatred.
Henry Joy,
Deleteyes I believe so.
It is not a newly arrived at position by myself but simply an elaboration of a theme I wrote about in 2020.
I don't want to be overly critical of people on the Left side of the bridge and with whom I identify but I do feel there is a need for more strategic reflection.
It saddens me to see people getting involved in anti Immigrant protests. I do believe that the appeal of the far right is the result of deliberate government policy to divide the working class. I believe the unfolding of events involving immigrants arriving here is predicted to complicate the views of people for government failures. I believe the way forward is to engage with ordinary people before they become members of such organisations rather than deepen division on the streets. Provocateurs will Stoke each group resulting in bitter division. I believe we need to organize the people in terms of class not race. Genuine discourse on the issues with genuine people is the way, before it's too late.
ReplyDelete